MEET THE MELLONS: How Some Irish Potato Farmers Became A Wall Street Dynasty

With contemporaries like the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers, the Mellons are often overlooked in discussions of families who amassed incredible fortunes during and after the Gilded Age.

It doesn't help that the Mellon family's rags-to-riches story has settings that are far from picturesque -- the farmlands of Ireland before the potato famine, and the industrial city of Pittsburgh.

However, the family's shrewd investments always put them on the cutting edge of technology during a period of mass industrialization: an easy formula for unimaginable riches.

What sets the Mellon dynasty apart from many others is the diversity of their wealth. At the turn of the twentieth century, the Mellons acquired significant interests in major oil, steel, aluminum, and coal companies -- and still keep their family name on a major bank, BNY Mellon, to boot. Descendants of the architects of the Mellon family's wealth have been born into prosperity, but have largely protected, rather than enhanced, the family fortune.

Thomas Mellon, the patriarch of the dynasty, was born in 1813 in Northern Ireland.

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In the old country, the Mellons were a family of farmers. The family house, pictured to the right, has been converted into the Ulster American Folk Park Museum. At the age of five, Thomas and his family emigrated to the U.S.

Source: Thomas Mellon and His Times

As a young teenager, Thomas was inspired by Benjamin Franklin.

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In his autobiography, Thomas recounts finding The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin when he was 14, which made him yearn for a future greater than farming.

Source: Thomas Mellon and His Times

He became the first in the family to graduate from college in 1837, and went on to become a lawyer.

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Thomas attended the Western University of Pennsylvania (currently University of Pittsburgh). After graduation, he worked as a clerk for the county and opened his own practice located in Pittsburgh in 1839.

By all accounts, the courtship was especially long and frustrating due to the social gap between Mellon and Negley. Mellon wrote "A radical reform is needed in the art of courtship. As its object is so important, I would have it conducted in an open, candid, earnest, truthful and practical spirit."

The couple had 8 children, of which Andrew and Richard are the most well-known.

Thomas built a country house in 1851 in East Liberty, Pennsylvania.

The country house was a family getaway. It also provided a great place for Thomas and Sarah Jane to share their mutual passion for horticulture, which the latter studied at school.

Source: Judge: A Life of Thomas Mellon, Founder of a Fortune

After being elected to the bench, Thomas' investments laid the foundation for the family fortune with investments in coal and real estate.

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Thomas was elected as an assistant judge in Allegheny County in 1859. That same year, he invested in his first coal property, and developed a friendship with James B. Corey, a major player in Pittsburgh coal. While serving, Mellon invested heavily in Pittsburgh real estate, whose value more than doubled during the 1860s.

Source: Judge: A Life of Thomas Mellon, Founder of a Fortune, Thomas Mellon and His Times

His investments did so well, he used the proceeds to open up his own bank.

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Thomas retired from the bench in 1869 to open T. Mellon & Sons. In 2007, Mellon Financial Corporation (the descendant of Thomas' bank) and Bank of New York merged to become BNY Mellon.

Thomas' famous sons, Andrew and Richard, were chips off the old block.

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In 1882, Thomas retired for good and turned the company over to his sons -- primarily Andrew, who had gone to school at his alma mater. Soon thereafter, the two would demonstrate prescient judgment and provided funding to different industries, which in turn caused the family fortune to multiply.

Source: Thomas Mellon and His Times

In 1889, the brothers gave a loan to the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, which eventually became ALCOA.

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This firm had a patent on processing aluminum. By 1907, Andrew Mellon used financial leverage to gain control of the company, which changed its name to Aluminum Company of America, or ALCOA. ALCOA has a virtual monopoly on North American aluminum.

Andrew Mellon helped the family gain control of important oil and steel companies.

In 1899, Andrew Mellon started Union Steel, which later merged with U.S. Steel to form the world's largest steel company. Two years later, he gave a loan to Gulf Oil, and bought the owner out in 1907. Gulf Oil became Chevron through a series of mergers.

In addition to being successful businessmen, the Mellons were also generous philanthropists.

In 1913, the brothers founded the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research in honor of their father. It which became an independent research center in 1927, and merged into the Carnegie-Mellon University in 1967.

At the age of 45, Andrew married the 20-year-old Nora Mary McMullen.

McMullen's father was a major shareholder in Guinness. The marriage would last from 1900 until 1912, when a divorce was granted due to McMullen's adultery and desertion. Their separation was a bitter process that caused much angst for their two children, Paul and Alisa.

With his fortune at its peak, Andrew was named Treasury Secretary in 1921. Richard became President of Mellon Bank.

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During the 1920s, Andrew was the third wealthiest taxpayer in America behind Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller. He cut marginal tax rates exceptionally while increasing tax revenues and the share of the tax burden that came from the wealthiest incomes.

Source: Mellon: An American Life

While serving as Treasury Secretary he lived at the McCormick Apartments.

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Designed by architect Jules Henri de Sibour and built by Stanley McCormick, this building located close to Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. has been designated a National Historical Landmark and has been added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

An attempt was made to impeach Mellon in 1932, so he left the Treasury to become Ambassador to England.

He was accused of having a vested interest in the import tariffs he was setting, ownership of sea vessels, giving preferential tax treatment to his own companies, and having unlawful business interests with whiskey, aluminum, and the Soviet Union.

Andrew Mellon was an unparalleled patron of the arts.

FDR continued to investigate Andrew Mellon, even past the grave.

The popular president apparently had a grudge against the wealthy businessman. Alleged discrepancies in Mellon's income tax returns became the subject of a two-year civil action. Mellon was found not guilty just months after his death in 1937.

Andrew's son Paul didn't share his father's excellence in business, but made up for it by marrying rich.

Bunny counts Whoopi Goldberg and Queen Elizabeth among her circle of friends.

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Via Vanity Fair's James Reginato:

"People have this idea of her as a recluse, but she’s had a full life. She hasn’t been out and about as much as you might expect a socialite to be, but she’s done exactly what she wanted. She never wanted to bother with a lot of boring people, and when you have your own airport, it helps.”